Be sure to include your name, daytime phone number, address, name and phone number of legal next-of-kin, method of payment, and the name of the funeral home/crematory to contact for verification of death.

This week, Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen officially took the reins as Assembly Republican leader after being elected to the position by her peers last July, and the timing couldn’t be more appropriate for the Central Valley. It is we who suffer from the largest unemployment rates, stand to lose the most from this devastating drought and are consistently dismissed by representatives from the wealthier, coastal regions of the state.

The city of Merced was treated to a double feature at the Merced Theatre on Sept. 25: a screening of the movie “Inequality for All” and a question-and-answer session with its star, Robert Reich, a professor at UC Berkeley.

With the stroke of his pen, Gov. Jerry Brown has placed California on par with all other Western states, ensuring a long-term, stable and reliable supply of groundwater for our homes, farms and factories.

As the U.S. economy continues its slow but steady recovery – with manufacturing and exports playing a key role – the debate in Congress over the future of the U.S. Export-Import Bank is coming to a head.

California’s reputation as a supremely glamorous place was once so entrenched that even sports teams lived up to the image. The “Showtime” Lakers of the 1980s played a Hollywood brand of basketball. The 49ers, under quarterback Joe Montana, were as elegant as the San Francisco Ballet.

Budgeting 101 tells us to plan for the unexpected by setting aside some of our dollars in a rainy-day fund. If we do, when hard times hit, we’re prepared. We’ve got the bucks in the bank to cover replacing the roof that starts to leak or the radiator in the family car. We have a financial safety net to carry us through the tough times.

Mike Dunbar’s column, “Get ready for water war in Valley” (May 4, Page D1), comes close to hitting the bull’s-eye on water issues facing the Northern San Joaquin Valley, but falls short on one fundamental point.

This drought is scary in that it’s difficult to know when, or even if, the water will come back. But rather than wreck our future with ill-considered legislation, it makes more sense to plan for the California in which we want to live.

We’re public policy advocates, so we’re always happy to hear that legislators are discussing our work. But we were less than pleased by the recent op-ed (“Hidden double-digit gas tax would affect Central Valley the most,” April 25, Page A13) on gas prices from Central Valley policymakers Sen. Anthony Cannella and Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, who cherry-picked citations and quotes from our recent report No Californian Left Behind.

Water is being discussed everywhere as California endures one of the worst documented droughts in decades. Now more than ever, it is critical to consider the full scope of water’s significance – economic, geologic, political, socioeconomic and more – and the urgent need to make its conservation and management a top priority in our thirsty state.